Technology and Aging

Technological advancements have become widespread, and their implementation into products of everyday use is accelerating. Technology has the potential to improve the lives of older adults by increasing their safety, security, and independence in daily life. However, too often older adults' capabilities and limitations are not considered in the design of current and future technologies. In 1990, the National Research Council identified the importance of human factors in the design of technology for an aging population. The goal of this chapter is to review research on aging and technology since that report to determine the contributions of human factors research to issues of aging and technology design. In this chapter we address the extent to which older adults use new technologies, factors to consider in the adoption of technology (e.g., attitudes), the influence of technology design on older adults' performance (e.g., design of input devices), and ways to optimize training for older adults in using new technologies (e.g., age-specific instructional designs). We then review emerging areas of research that may direct the focus of human factors research in the next decade. These areas of research include ubiquitous computing (e.g., home monitoring systems), health care technologies (e.g., telehealth), robotics (e.g., Nursebot), and automated systems (e.g., cruise control). Finally, we consider opportunities and challenges to human factors research as the field continues to address the questions of optimizing technology for older adult users.

Training older adults to use new technology

Enabling older adults to interact with new technologies is an important immediate and long-term goal for training research. The literature provides general guidance for developing training programs; however, it is important to determine the type of training that works best for younger and older adults, for immediate performance, and for learning. In the present study we assessed the relative benefits of guided action training and guided attention training for younger and older adults learning to use a novel technology system. Guided action training yielded better performance during training for both age groups. However, assessments of learning revealed a clear benefit of guided attention training for both age groups. These data suggest differences in training benefits for immediate performance versus more general learning.